Giving It a Clean Boot

Have you ever tried to install a program and it just wouldn’t go? You know, you try it several times, but no matter what you do, it just doesn’t install properly. I bet almost everyone out there has run into this at least once and today, I’m going to share a tip with you that I use daily when helping people install programs.

You know about safe mode, right? It’s the way a computer can be started to try and fix problems when it won’t boot up correctly. Safe mode is great for fixing major problems, but most of the time, it’s too restrictive to try and fix less troublesome issues. If you’re having trouble installing a program and safe mode doesn’t help you, you may want to try a lesser known startup mode, called clean boot.

The clean boot mode is somewhat like safe mode. It makes the computer start up with fewer features running and no background programs. The main difference is while safe mode won’t allow you to do many things with your programs, the clean boot mode will. That way, you can start your computer in the clean boot mode, try to install the troublesome program and finally succeed. So, without further ado, here’s how you can start your computer in the clean boot mode!

For Windows XP:

1.) Go to Start, Run.

2.) Type in “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK.

3.) Under the General tab, you should see that your computer is on Normal Startup. Select Selective Startup and then uncheck the following boxes:

“process system.ini file”

“process win.ini file”

“load startup items”

When you’re finished with that, your screen will look like the picture below:

Note: If your computer was already on Selective Startup, you may want to consider not finishing this tip. If your system is already set that way, someone has already modified your startup configurations. Therefore, you may end up altering those configurations by switching over to the clean boot and that may cause undesired results.

4.) Next, go to the Services tab and put a check next to “Hide all Microsoft services.” Then click on the DisableAll button.

5.) Click OK and you will be prompted to restart your computer.

After your system restarts, it will be in the clean boot mode. Try to install the program you were having trouble with. After you’re done, you’ll need to put your system back into the normal mode. Here’s how:

1.) Go to Start, Run.

2.) Type in “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK.

3.) Under the General tab, select Normal Startup.

4.) Click OK and then restart your computer once more.

For Windows Vista:

1.) Go to Start and type “msconfig” (without the quotes) in the search box. Then hit Enter on your keyboard.

2.) If you’re prompted for an Administrator password or for a confirmation, type in the password or click Continue.

3.) You’ll then see a screen labeled “System Configuration.” On that screen, select Selective Startup and uncheck the box that says “Load startup items.”

Note: If your computer was already on Selective Startup, you may want to consider not finishing this tip. If your system is already set that way, someone has already modified your startup configurations. You may end up altering those configurations by switching over to the clean boot and that may cause undesired results.

4.) Next, go to the Services tab and put a check next to “Hide all Microsoft services.” Then click on the DisableAll button.

5.) Click OK and you’ll be prompted to restart your computer.

After your system restarts, it will be in the clean boot mode. Try to install the program you were having trouble with. After you’re done, you’ll need to put your system back into the normal mode. Here’s how:

1.) Go to Start, type “msconfig” (without the quotes) in the search box and hit Enter on your keyboard.

2.) If you’re prompted for an Administrator password or for a confirmation, type in the password or click Continue.

3.) You’ll then see a screen labeled “System Configuration.” On that screen, select Normal Startup and click OK.

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